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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26987347">Halfrek, Journeyman Justice Demon</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soulburnt/pseuds/Soulburnt'>Soulburnt</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Historical, season six</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 03:40:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,529</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26987347</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soulburnt/pseuds/Soulburnt</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Halfrek’s presence is never a good thing for William the Bloody.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Halfrek, Journeyman Justice Demon</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>London<br/>1880</p><p>***</p><p>“You’re beneath me.”</p><p>As Halfrek made her pronouncement, she took several steps away, but she watched the hapless human from the corner of her eye.  William’s face drained of color, other than two splotches of red high on his cheeks.  Even though his eyes were partly obscured by the lamplight flashing off the lenses, she could see the pain in them.</p><p>It was… delicious.</p><p>She turned to face the wall, hiding her jubilation as he rose and rushed from the room.  A moment later, she heard the heavy front door slam.  William must not have waited for a servant to retrieve his coat.  Abner Sleary saw the hasty exit and came toward her, to offer comfort, no doubt.</p><p>“Are you quite all right, Miss Addams?”</p><p>She forced a weary smile as she turned.  “I am.  Thank you for asking, however.  You are quite the kindest gentleman I know.” </p><p>His large ears grew red with embarrassed pleasure.  “Oh.  Well, I am sure I…  I do try.”  His eyes went to the door again.  “William wasn’t pestering you with his atrocious verse, was he?”</p><p>“No.  Well, yes, but I was quite clear that he shouldn’t bother in the future.”</p><p>“Quite.  Still, as hard as it is to take him seriously, it’s understandable why he and indeed all those of my sex fall under your fair spell.”</p><p>Oh, not another one.  She was here for a reason, after all.  Halfrek tossed her curls, demure but showing a little fire.  “William?  No one will ever take him seriously.”  Power lashed through the air with the words.</p><p>Oops.</p><p>She whirled to face the wall again, a little panicked as she hid her demon’s face under her fetching human disguise.  This was only her second solo assignment, but she should have better control.  Halfrek had done her time as an apprentice to several justice demons, including her favorite, the legendary Anyanka.  They’d had so much fun during the Crimean War.  She should be past rookie mistakes.</p><p>Halfrek fanned herself.  “Might I ask a favor of you, Mr. Sleary?  It’s rather close in here, and I fancy some refreshment.  Perhaps a small glass of lemonade?”</p><p>He gave her a smart bow.  “It would be my great pleasure to serve you.  I shall locate a footman at once.”</p><p>She graced him with a smile and returned to her perch on the divan, where she could unobtrusively observe her quarry once more.  Judge Withers was in the market for a new wife, and Halfrek was sure she could persuade him that she would be a good fit.  And that would get her access to his crippled daughter, whose cries for vengeance were as loud to her as Richard Cromley’s hee-hawing laugh, which she could hear from two rooms away. </p><p>From the knot of men gathered near the staircase, she saw Judge Withers send a glance her way, his pale eyes and hatchet face locking onto her for just a tick too long.  Halfrek was too canny to smile at him.  Instead, she schooled her features into a pensive, almost fearful look, covering it with a false smile as Abner Sleary returned with a glass of lemonade.  Men like Withers liked fearful women, especially fearful women who turned away other suitors.</p><p>Two more of these tedious little gatherings, and she’d have an invitation to his home, she was sure.  Just a single conversation with his housebound daughter would be very productive.  Halfrek looked down demurely as her smile became genuine.</p><p>She didn’t think of her magical lapse again.</p><p>***</p><p> Arashmaharr</p><p> </p><p>“You wished to see me, Kreldwen?”</p><p>“Oh, yes, Halfrek,” the harried demon said, looking up from her desk.  “Welcome home to Arashmaharr.  Have a seat, please.”  She began lifting files from various spots on her desk before finding the one she wanted.  “Ah, here we go.”</p><p>“I’m wanted in Vienna…” Halfrek said, hoping to hurry the interview along.  She’d spent enough time speaking with the auditing department bureaucrats as an apprentice.</p><p>“Yes, of course.  This won’t take long.  It’s about your last assignment.”  The demon frowned for a moment, then her eyebrows shot up.  “Oh, well done, you!  Gas expanding in Judge Withers’ bowels, days of pain until he exploded in court.  Intestines all over the magistrates and solicitors!  Heh!”</p><p>She patted her curls.  “Yes, well, no less than he deserved.”  The crippled daughter had sobbed with shock and remorse at Withers’ funeral.  She was destined for an attic room with some of her late mother’s distant relatives, where she would grow weak from cold and malnutrition and die from infected bedsores before the end of winter.  Halfrek shifted uncomfortably on the wooden chair.  She shouldn’t check on a wisher’s fate; that was another rookie mistake.  Anyanka and her other mentors were clear that the wisher was mortal and unimportant.  Only their wish mattered.</p><p>As Kreldwen read further for more details, her lips moving as she did, she felt reassured.   Halfrek pressed the issue.  “D’Hoffryn is pleased with the wish?”</p><p>“The wish?  Oh, yes,” the older demon said, “very good.”  She flipped back to the first page of the report.  “However, you used some power for your own purposes at the beginning of the assignment…?”</p><p>“That’s allowed,” she said quickly.  “I’m a journeyman justice demon now.”</p><p>“Yes, that’s true.”  Kreldwen looked at her over top of the file.  “Allowed, but not encouraged.”</p><p>“I-it wasn’t anything big,” she said, and felt more words pouring forth.  She babbled when she was nervous.  “A man who was annoyingly persistent.  No one will ever take him seriously again.  Not that anyone did before.  And it won’t go on for all that long.  Just a human, after all.”</p><p>“A human?  You weren’t in any danger, then?”</p><p>“No.  Just… displeased.”</p><p>“Hmm.”  Kreldwen frowned.  “An ongoing wish, even a small one, will be a drain on your power.”</p><p>She lifted a shoulder in an indifferent shrug.  “Human.  They have such short lives.”</p><p>The auditor sighed.  “Yes, but the point is to grant wishes, not indulge your own.  And the best ones consist of one single act on your part, with consequences upon consequences for the target.”  She sighed as she closed the file.  “The wish you granted for little Susan Withers was wonderful, though.  Are you ready for your next assignment?”</p><p>That was it?  Halfrek almost sighed with relief.  “Oh, yes.  There’s a child in Austria whose cries for justice just peal through the aether.”</p><p>“Well, very best wishes,” Kreldwen punned.  “Keep up the good work!”</p><p>Halfrek drew in a breath as she turned away from the auditor’s desk.  Being on her own was dizzying, wonderful and frightening all at once.  But she was doing a good job – Kreldwen had said so – even if she wasn’t perfect yet.</p><p>And of course, practice makes perfect.  She teleported to Vienna.</p><p>***</p><p>Sunnydale, California<br/>May 2002</p><p> </p><p>Halfrek knew she really should get back to Arashmaharr; there was an apprentice justice demon waiting to shadow her in the workplace.  She’d spent weeks on the Hellmouth, busy with granting wishes, Anyanka’s ill-fated wedding, and the aftermath.  But the chance to rectify a long-ago slip-up was irresistible.</p><p>It was nice that she could be here for her old friend during a trying time, too.  Anyanka explained what happened with her ex-fiancé, how simply having sex with someone he hated had been vengeance enough.  She’d absently confided that sex with William the Bloody was physically very satisfying but emotionally empty.  Halfrek wasn’t sure what she meant by that; she seldom denied her own appetites and never found indulgence empty. </p><p>Perhaps Anyanka had been human too long.  Halfrek tried to imagine even one year without her powers and shuddered.  The whole incident with Anyanka’s shattered power center was behind her now.  She needed to remember those old lessons about mortals and their concerns being of no importance.</p><p>One last thing to wrap up, then she’d leave the Hellmouth.  Halfrek shadowed the vampire from his crypt – William’s choice in lodging made clear he was déclassé as ever – to Dawn Summers’ house.  He should have sensed her following him, but he was obviously lost in thought.  Dawn wasn’t home, just her sister, the Slayer, somewhere on the upper floor.  Halfrek moved to the porch, watching through the large window as William took off his leather coat and laid it on the bannister.</p><p>“Let my inadvertent wish end,” she whispered.  Halfrek felt an immediate jolt, small though it was.  Kreldwen, dead for decades, had been right about the drain on her power.  Who knew William would exist for so long?  She hadn’t lost control since then, at least.</p><p>She smiled, displaying uneven, yellowed teeth.  A good exchange, she thought as she watched him start up the stairs, steeling himself to talk to the Slayer, much as he had done before he confessed his love to Cecily Addams all those decades ago. </p><p>Halfrek turned away from the human dwelling, ready to put it all behind her.  She got a little boost of power, and he got gravitas.  If the vampire had managed to become this notorious when he wasn’t taken seriously, what might happen now that he could be seen for the powerful, competent, evil creature he was?</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>My very deepest gratitude to Elysian Field's All4Spike, who is my supporting launchpad for this story.  Thank you for the beta work but mostly for giving me confidence to post!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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